Edale Skyline

Photo by Dark Peak Fell Runners

Sunday 29th March 2009 - Edale Skyline

It was a lovely day on Sunday - blue sky and a great temperature to run in - i was glad i opted for shorts & t-shirt. I did the race for the first time in 2008 (so missed out on the infamous awful weather in 2007) so i have been lucky to have great conditions both years. It is a 21 mile route, with 4500ft climbing, but most of the climbing is in the first half. Its worth taking it a bit easy in the first half, as you still need energy on the moorland sections later in the race. See the Dark Peak Fell Runners website for a profile (and maybe some photos). I had a really good race, finishing in 3 hours and 35 minutes as second Lady (mind you about 20 minutes behind 1st lady - Jackie Lee). I was 10 minutes faster than last year so felt like a good start to the year. It was great feeling that i could run well and pick up speed later in the race, not having raced that far for a while, and i got great support from fellow runners later on in the race as i caught people up which was really nice. Good samosas(!) & cake in the hall afterwards and came home with a bottle of wine - so a good day out. As ever, many thanks to the organisers for a smooth running event which everyone i spoke to seemed to have enjoyed. Next thing for me is the last in the 2008/2009 "Open5" adventure race series - it is from Hope on Sunday (so maybe will be up Mam Tor again!) -- i am racing with my husband Dave so hopefully my legs will have loosened up a bit before then....